BIRDS FALCONINAE FALCO COLUMBARIUS. 
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Sub-Genus Hypotriorchis- 
FALCO COLUMBARIUS, Linnaeus. 
Pigeon Hawk. 
Falco columbarius, Linn. Syst. Nat 1,128, (1766.) 
Falco intermixing, Dattdin, Traite d'Orn. II, 141, (1800.) 
Falco temerarius, Audubon, Orn. Biog. I, 381, (1831.) 
Falco Auduboni, Blackwall, Researches, Zool. 1834. 
Figures — Catesby's Carolina, pi. 3 ; Vieill. Ois. d'Am., Sept. pi. 11 ; Wilson Am. Orn. II, pi. 15, fig. 3 ; Swains. Faun. 
Bor. Am. Birds, pi 25 ; Aud. B. of Am., pi. 75, 92, oct. ed. I, pit 21 ; De Kay Nat. Hist. , N.Y., Birds, pi. 4, fig. 9. 
Adult Male. Entire upper parts bluish slate color, every feather with a black longitudinal line ; forehead and throat 
white, other under parts pale yellowish or reddish white; every feather with a longitudinal line of brownish black ; tibia? 
light ferruginous, with lines of black. Quills black, tipped with ashy white ; tail light bluish ashy, tipped with white and 
with a wide subterminal band of black, and with several other transverse narrower bands of black ; inner webs nearly white ; 
cere and legs yellow ; bill blue. 
Younger. Entire upper plumage dusky brown, quite light in some specimens, and with a tinge of ashy ; head above, with 
narrow stripes of dark brown and ferruginous, and in some specimens many irrugular spots and edgings of the latter color 
on the other upper parts. Forehead and entire under parts dull white, the latter with longitudinal stripes of light brown ; 
sides and flanks light brown, with pairs of circular spots of white ; tibiae dull white, with dashes of brown ; tail pale brown, 
with about six transverse bands of white. Cere and legs greenish yellow. 
Young. Upper plumage brownish black, white of the forehead and under parts more deeply tinged with reddish yellow; 
dark stripes wider than in preceding ; sides and flanks with wide transverse bands of brownish black, and with circular 
spots of yellowish white. Quids black ; tail brownish black, tipped with white, and with about four bands of white ; cere 
and feet greenish yellow. 
Total length. Female, 12 to 14 inches ; wing, 8 to 9 inches ; tail, 5 to 5£ inches. Male, total length, 10 to 11 inches; 
wing, 7£ to 8 inches ; tail, 5 inches. 
Hah Temperate North America, Mexico, Central America, Northern South America. Spec, in Nat. Mus. , Washington, 
and Mus. Acad. , Philadalphia. 
Specimens in the present collection show that this little hawk inhabits the entire coast of the 
possessions of the United States on the Pacific ocean. Being, also, one of the most abundant 
species of its family in the States on the Atlantic, its locality may be stated as the whole of 
temperate North America. 
This bird presents the usual variations in plumage which prevail in nearly all the birds of 
the family Falconida3, and render the determining of species frequently perplexing and difficult. 
There are, however, three well-defined stages exhibited in a large number of specimens now 
before me, including the specimens in the present collection, as given above, and others from 
various parts of the United States. Of these the adult is easily distinguished, and is very 
nearly as figured by Audubon, under the name Falco temerarius, but of the other two plumages 
we cannot at present determine which is the more mature. One of the latter is dull brown, as 
figured in Fauna Boreali Americana, as above, and the other much darker and nearly black, as 
in the plates of Wilson Am. Orn., and Aud. B. of Am., as above cited. 
The darkest colored specimens that we have ever seen are in this collection, and so different 
from the adult as to readily suggest doubts of their specific identity. Both males and females 
are clear brownish black, and in one specimen, a male obtained by Dr. Cooper, at Shoalwater 
bay, Washington Territory, the tail is without a vestige of the spots usually to be noticed, and 
there are very few on the primaries. This is probably the youngest plumage. 
Another plumage is uniformly dull and frequently pale brown above, with nearly every 
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